Life Threatening Risks of Not Getting Sleep Apnea Treated Now

People with sleep disorders like apnea tend to be tired and stressed, since they cannot get a good night’s sleep. Snoring and other sleep apnea symptoms can also disturb bed partners, but there is far more at stake than just lack of sleep!

What is Sleep Apnea?

The word ‘apnea’ can be translated as ‘stopping breathing’ or ‘no breath’, and that’s exactly what happens. With sleep apnea, air flow to your lungs gets cut off for 10 seconds or more while you’re asleep and you stop breathing. This triggers your brain to wake you up and make you take a breath before going back to sleep.

This constant cycle of waking up and falling asleep again, up to 30 times an hour, takes a toll on both physical and mental health. You may feel tired or irritated all the time without realizing why. In fact, most people with sleep apnea don’t even know they have it!

Sleep apnea is classified into three types:

Obstructive Sleep Apnea or OSA – The most common type, where air flow to lungs is blocked by an obstruction in the nose or throat (upper airway).

Central Sleep Apnea or CSA – Not as common as OSA, where the upper airway is open but automatic breathing stops due to poor brain-body communication.

Mixed Sleep Apnea – Where the upper airway is obstructed, but there is also no effort made to breathe automatically while sleeping.

Road Accidents – Daytime sleepiness, tiredness or fatigue can lead to increased risk of falling asleep behind the wheel and low alertness levels.

Work & Lifestyle Effects – Lack of quality sleep and energy could affect your performance and cause aggressive behavior at work, school and home.

How is Sleep Apnea Treated?

The first step in sleep apnea treatment is diagnosis. Visit your doctor and provide all the information you can gather about your sleep and breathing patterns, energy levels, snoring or other symptoms, as well as medication you take.

CPAP – Continuous Positive Airway Pressure breathing devices are used to treat OSA. A CPAP mask is placed over the mouth or nose, and air is gently pushed into the upper airway in order to help it remain open.

Dental Appliances – These devices control the position of your tongue and lower jaw, to reduce obstructions in the airway and boost air flow to lungs. Visit a Fresno dentist for dental appliance sleep apnea therapy.

Consult a specialist if you think you have sleep apnea. Dr. Michael Long is a family dentist in Fresno, CA who can help you diagnose sleep apnea symptoms and treat the condition with dental appliances. Book your appointment with Dr. Long at (559) 432-4850 today!

Michael G. Long DDS in Fresno, CA provides comprehensive and comfortable family dentistry services and solutions for all your general, cosmetic and pediatric dentistry needs. Dr. Michael Long and his entire team is dedicated to take care of you and your entire family when it comes to your oral care and dental needs since 1980.